Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this legislation. I welcome the Minister; it is her first Bill since her return. She is taking on a big beast here. For those of us who were here in 2009, there is a sense of going back to the future with this Bill. Very good reasons were laid out for the changes that were envisaged that are now being stopped. They are being stopped because they were not acted on in the intervening period. I accept the need for the legislation, because if it were not introduced, there would be chaos and a huge amount of disturbance, disruption and upset.

I, too, welcome the fact that there will be a review of the Property Registration Authority, PRAI. I listened to the debate earlier, which was slightly affirming, because I thought I had done something to the people in the PRAI because they are impossible to deal with and never get back to you. As far as they are concerned, we, the directly elected representatives of the people, are an irritant to their work. We only get involved when constituents, who have perhaps paid legal professions and cannot get a response, come to us. Really, it is one of the most frustrating Government agencies to deal with.

I will provide an example of a mapping case that I am dealing with. The original application was completed and lodged in August 2019. There was minimal progress in the following 12 months. My constituent approached me in late July 2020. We have been through the usual contact line that applicants are encouraged to use and we have submitted parliamentary questions. We have spoken to the offices of the Minister of Justice and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, because for a while, there was a back and forth between both Ministers in respect of who was responsible for PRAI. It was like a game of pass the parcel. Meanwhile, my constituent has a family land issue that is not being resolved. Eventually, I got speaking to a human being in the PRAI. When I mentioned the word "ombudsman", suddenly there was a flurry of correspondence, but no progress. I have heard of similar experiences. If we are to proceed with a review, the Minister must start by changing the culture of the organisation, ensure it is adequately staffed, and that it is in a position to address the backlog of issues that are there.

Mapping issues are causing serious difficulties for legal practitioners and for us as public representatives. However, more important, mistakes in mapping issues are having massive consequences throughout the country. Coming from an agricultural background, the Minister does not need to be told about the importance of land and how it can assume an importance that may not be reflected in reality. It strikes me the PRAI has added to much of that frustration and worry through the many errors in mapping. Errors and human errors happen, but we should not defend the indefensible, dig in and refuse to work to correct them.

I absolutely agree with Deputy Howlin. If there is to be a review, this House needs to be involved. Indeed, I would even go as far as to say there are many former Members of this House who should be involved. For example, I think of Deputy Howlin's former colleague, former Deputy Willie Penrose. People like that, with really sensible and practical experience, need to be involved in it. Former Deputy Penrose could bring his legal expertise to the table as well. If we are to introduce the measures we have planned in the areas of housing and marine planning, and if there is an inefficient, weakened and unresponsive PRAI, as is currently the case, it will be the rock on which many of these plans will fall. The Minister must ask herself how, when the system had 11 years' notice to get itself ready, nobody saw this coming until the Law Society, the Bar Council of Ireland and various individual solicitors raised the issue within the past 12 months. Surely, within the Minister's own Department there should have been a system for measuring delivery on the responsibilities that were placed on the Department and the PRAI as a consequence of the 2009 Bill. Surely, there is a system in place across all Bills and Departments for measuring delivery on responsibilities in terms of enacting what is passed in the House. We should not have to keep coming back here with two weeks' notice to pass legislation like this.

If we are to conduct a review, it must be timely. We should go outside the usual suspects when appointing those who will conduct the review. The Government must try to envisage what these delays are doing to people. They are adding to their financial stress and worry, and they are adding to mental stress and worry. Once you get involved in legal issues around property and land, the process must be as clean and clear-cut as possible. In most cases it should be. However, delay after delay and not answering for those delays add to that stress and the cost. Surely, in this day of digital technology and all that goes with it, such delays should be left in the past.

I share the concerns and the interest around how this Bill and the review will align with the Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021, which is very important. A review in respect of the foreshore side of things has been a long time coming. It would be unfortunate if another Bill or another State agency, such as the PRAI, was not reformed and impeded the progress being made under the Maritime Area Planning Bill, which is so important. I would like to avoid a situation where we are going to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage or the Minister of Agriculture, Food and the Marine about foreshore bills when the responsibility lies with this agency. Again, it is essential this is done.

This Bill will save a lot of difficulty, inconvenience and stress. Questions need to be asked and answered as to why we got to this situation and why it was not highlighted beforehand. The Minister must commit to a major reform of the PRAI.

See this speech in context